Food Safety Knowledge and Practices of Floating Food Vendors in Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, Sudarin Rodmanee Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan [email protected] Srayut Tongnoy Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan [email protected] and Wen-Chi Huang Department of Agribusiness Management Joint Appointment with Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan [email protected]

Abstract — Food hygiene knowledge and practices of floating food vendors in I. INTRODUCTION Damnoen Saduak Floating Market was Damnoen Saduak Floating Market is one investigated. Data was collected from of the famous and attractive places to see thirty vendors using a structured traditional way of food and goods trade in questionnaire and an observational Thailand. It is located at Damnoen Saduak checklist. Few (10%) vendors acquired the District, . Like other knowledge of food safety by formal floating markets in Thailand, food is training. The results suggest that although definitely one of the highlights of a trip to most floating food vendors have Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. knowledge of some aspects of food safety The major advantage of being floating and practices, several gaps remain, posing food vendors is the accessibility to the buyer. a serious health hazard to consumers. The On the other hand, hygiene is the weak point main problems were the infrequency of due to several factors such as trading hand washing, the storage of cooked food features, characteristics of the foods sold and uncovered and the accumulation of waste hygiene surveillance, which increase near the point-of-sale. It is important that concerns about the safety of vended foods. vendors should be supported through Currently, food sanitation laws and additional hygiene training and routine regulations do not provide any specific inspections be conducted to ensure that standards with which floating food vendors appropriate knowledge is acquired and need to comply to carry out their activity. effectively applied. The code of practice They are not regulated and operate for vendors should be developed with a haphazardly without any monitoring of view to improve food safety in floating hygiene practices. market food operations. Diarrheal diseases have been considered the major public health problem in Thailand [1]. There are approximately more than Keywords — Floating market, food safety, 120,000 cases of reported food poisoning hygiene, sanitation cases every year [2]. Unhygienic food

handling of the floating food vendors may diarrhea. Majority of the respondents (93%) cause pathogens to come into contact with were aware that all the five factors namely; vended foods and cause foodborne diseases. dirty food, dirty water, dirty hands, dirty The purpose of this study was to investigate utensils, and animals as risk factors for the the current hygiene knowledge and practices transmission of pathogens causing diarrhea. of floating food vendors in Damnoen Saduak The results revealed that all of the vendors Floating Market. were aware that invisible germs in foods and hairs as food contaminants. However, only II. MATERIALS AND METHODS one-tenth of the vendors considered that food Thirty floating food vendors in Damnoen colorings, flavorings and spices used in food Saduak Floating Market, Ratchaburi preparation and preservation can Province, Thailand were interviewed on-the- contaminate food. spot by using a structured questionnaire and an observation checklist. The questionnaire C. Health and Personal Hygiene was divided in to five parts: (i) profile of the More than 85% of the vendors agreed that vendors; (ii) knowledge about diarrhea and fever, diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach food contaminants; (iii) health and personal cramps may make them stop vending hygiene; (iv) food handling; (v) waste temporarily. management. The hygienic practices and All of the vendors agreed that bathing must personal hygiene were also observed and be done regularly and they should wear clean recorded by using the observation checklist. clothes, aprons and hair nets. However, it The survey was conducted in August, 2011. was observed that 80% of the respondents Data was analyzed by using the Statistical did not wear aprons, 37% had worn jewelry, Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 27% did not wear hair restraints, and 23% 17.0. Descriptive statistics were used to had dirty nails. Avoiding the use of present the findings. adornments of any type is also an essential measure in good practices of personal III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION hygiene [4]. A. Profile of Floating Food Vendors and Hand washing is a simple and effective Vended Food in Damnoen Saduak way to cut down on cross contamination. Floating Market Hand washing practices of the floating food vendors are presented in Table 1. From the Only 10% of the respondents in this study survey it was observed that none of the had acquired formal food sanitary training. vendors washed hands after handling money. Food vendors should be adequately educated The hands of food handlers can be vectors on the food safety [3]. There were various in the spread of foodborne diseases due to types of floating food vended at Damnoen poor personal hygiene or cross Saduak Floating Market. About 37% of the contamination [5]. The vendors should avoid food vendors sold fresh fruits such as , handling money and if this is unavoidable, pomelo, rose apple, , guava, star fruit the vendors should clean hands after and . Other vendors sold Thai dessert, touching money and before handling food Pad Thai, pork , spring roll and papaya again. Food handlers should wash their salad (17%, 7%, 7%, 7% and 3%, hands with soap and water after engaging in respectively). any activities that are likely to introduce B. Knowledge about Diarrhea and Food biological, chemical or physical hazards (e.g. Contaminants after handling raw foods of animal origin, More than 90% of the vendors knew the after using the toilet, after handling symptom of diarrhea as passing of more than unsanitary objects such as garbage three liquid stools a day. Only 3% of the containers, after touching animals, and after vendors did not have any knowledge about

contact with toxic substances such as If cooking and reheating are inadequate, pesticides and disinfectants) [6]. bacterial contaminants can multiply. If food cannot be served immediately, it should be TABLE I kept or maintain within the safety HAND WASHING PRACTICES OF FLOATING temperature of at least 70 oC before eating. FOOD VENDORS IN DAMNOEN SADUAK This is to make sure that the foods may not FLOATING MARKET act as incubator for microbes whether the Topics Number of % Responses food is partially cooked or fully done [7]. (n=30) Clean utensils such as tongs, spoons or forks Source of water for hand washing should be used when handling cooked food. Tap water 21 70 Handling with bare hands may results in Canal water 7 23 cross contamination, hence introduction of Gallon water 2 7 microbes on safe food [8]. Hand washing requirements Clean water 30 100 F. Waste Management Soap 30 100 Clean hand towel 27 90 It was found that 97% of the floating food Disinfecting solution 2 7 vendors had at least one waste container. In Reasons for hand washing actual practice, wastes were accumulated in After using the toilets 30 100 open receptacles (plastic bags or trash bins). Handling garbage 30 100 The receptacles were placed in their boats or Blowing of nose 24 80 near their vending areas. The wastes were After eating meals 21 70 usually disposed of at the end of the day. The Scratching 21 70 Handling money 20 67 vendors did not cover trash receptacles thus Handling raw foods 11 37 attracting flies and other insects creating the Smoking 8 27 possibility of contamination of cooked food Continuous food handling 2 7 [9]. Of the vendors who did not have garbage receptacles, they disposed their garbage in E. Food Handling the canal. It was found that many of floating Results of the survey showed that the markets in Thailand suffered from vendors knew that it was unsafe to use environmental problems. The problems were unclean raw materials. All of the vendors caused by waste in the canal [10]. agreed that they should washed vegetables VI. CONCLUSIONS AND before cooking. Most of them (87%) refused SUGGESTION to use cooking oil repeatedly. Additionally, The results of this study suggest that 80% of the vendors recognized that the use although most floating food vendors have of the same cutting board for raw and cooked knowledge of some aspects of food safety food of animal and vegetable origin without and practices, several gaps remain, posing a thorough proper washing could be one of the serious health hazard to consumers. The cases of food poisoning. main problems were the infrequency of hand Majority of the respondents (90%) used washing, the storage of cooked food tap water for preparing and cooking food. uncovered and the accumulation of waste More vendors (77%) cooked their food near the point-of-sale. It is important that during sale and only 37% reheated the food vendors should be supported through before serve. These cooked food were additional hygiene training and routine reheated a few minutes for consumers inspections be conducted to ensure that anytime during the day. Moreover, 60% of appropriate knowledge is acquired and the vendors stored cooked food in uncovered effectively applied. The code of practice for containers and 43% of the vendors handled vendors should be developed with a view to cooked food with bare hands.

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